Roundup of Company News from Nigeria for the week ended April 8, 2017.
1. Access Bank is in the final year of its 5-year strategic plan, which was introduced by the CEO, Herbert Wigwe. The bank is now planning to focus on three main priorities. First is to cement its position as a dominant corporate bank. Second is to establish itself as a formidable retail bank and lastly leveraging digital technology and innovation to create value for its customers while unlocking new revenue streams. Nothing new here as this is basically what every bank aims to achieve. The bank however declared a dividend pay-out of about N18 billion to its shareholders. Profit after tax for the year was N65.8 billion.
2. The former big strong and reliable bank, Union Bank of Nigeria (UBN) Plc is concluding arrangements to float a rights issue of N50 billion in the second quarter of 2017. The bank wants to raise Tier 1 capital “to support the bank’s efforts to accelerate business growth and reposition itself as a leading commercial bank in Nigeria.” The bank also claimed, funding will “also allow Union Bank to maintain compliance with regulatory capital requirements.” This suggest the bank is below capital adequacy requirements. The bank reported a profit before tax of N15.3 billion compared to N14.3 billion the year before.
3. In apparent compliance with Nigeria’s local content policy, Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Company (SNEPCo) revealed that it has hired some indigenous service firms, including Dormanlong, to work on its Bonga facility, FPSO (the floating production, storage and offloading vessel), undergoing turnaround maintenance (TAM).
4. Perennial loss makers, Japaul Oil and Maritime Services Plc has blamed its latest string of losses on the devaluation of the naira. The company reported a loss after tax of N22.5 billion recorded for the year ended December 31, 2016. This company has a negative equity of about N19 billion and has reported losses every year for the last 5 years except for 2013 when it posted a modest profit of just N38.8 million. Their auditors PFT has classified the company as technically insolvent. Japaul hoodwinked a lot of unsuspecting Nigerians into its IPO about 10 years ago, leading to millions of retail investor money being wiped out. Shocking that the founder of this company Paul Jegede, whom the company is aptly named after still runs it as group Chairman.
5. NIPCO Investments Limited, a subsidiary of NIPCO Plc, has completed the takeover of Mobil Oil Nigeria Plc. The company acquired 60 per cent majority equity stake of ExxonMobil Oil Corporation in Mobil Oil Nigeria Plc, in a deal announced last year. The deal is worth $301million and is regarded as the biggest downstream sector deal on the Nigerian Stock Exchange in recent years. Under the deal, ExxonMobil transferred its total shareholding of 216.36 million ordinary shares of 50 kobo each to Nipco Investments Limited for the consideration of $301 million. Mobil share price rose sharply at the end of the week and closed at N360 per share. Rumours suggest, NIPCO may move for a Mandatory Takeover of the remaining shares of the company. The company will be renamed 11 Plc while retaining the Mobil brand.
6. Linkage Assurance Plc introduced what we thought was an interesting new motor third party insurance policy. In this policy, the insured’s vehicle is guaranteed a maximum of N250,000 cover. Premium for this policy is N15,000 and targets vehicle owners who can’t afford a comprehensive motor insurance policy. Currently, a comprehensive motor insurance policy is valued at about 4% of the value of the car. At N15,000 the implied value of the car is about N375,000.
7. Tier 1 bank, The United Bank for Africa Plc (UBA) has said it plans to extend its presence in Africa from 19 countries, Nigeria inclusive, to 25 countries by 2024. The Head, Investor Relations, UBA, Mr. Abiola Rasaq, who disclosed this during a media briefing in Lagos at the weekend, said the bank has developed a cost-effective strategy to achieve this plan. He explained that the bank’s operating licence in some of the African countries allows it to expand into some neighbouring countries without raising fresh capital. UBA is presently in Chad, Burkina Faso, Sierra Leone, Uganda, Congo Brazzaville, Mozambique, Cameroon, Tanzania and Congo DRC. The bank’s plans also align with the Chairman, Tony Elumelu’s Africapitalism mantra.
8.The Managing Director of PayPorte, Mr Bassey Eyo said that the online store, Payporte.com has suspended Payment on Delivery as part of its payment options. The company explained it took this decision in line with the new Central Bank of Nigeria cashless policy. A more plausible reason was due to the brutal murder of a delivery staff of Jumia who was killed after delivering goods to customers in Port Harcourt. The company thus based its decision also on the increasing security challenges posed by POD option and the need to improve customers’ satisfaction.
9. Euro Global Food and Distilleries Limited, a member of Sona Group of Companies announced that it has completed a critical phase of its N3billion Ethanol plant. The plant which is 90 per cent at completion stage will enable the company boost its local production. It said this was part of its backward integration drive. With the completion of the plant, the company will rely less on imported raw materials and will also bid to sell the excess production to other Nigerian distillery firms. The company’s products include Seaking Schnapps, Blue Lagoon Dry Gin, Power Bitters etc.
10. The Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas Limited (NLNG) last week revealed that it had paid $489.226 million, about N151.6 billion, in various forms of taxes to the Federal, States and Local Governments in 2016. The company released its fact and figures last week where it broke down its results as well as listed all the taxes paid in 2016. Interesting part of the report was confirmation that the total amount paid as taxes declined by 80.37 per cent or $2.0 billion when compared to total taxes of $2.5 billion, about N772.5 billion, paid to the three tiers of government in 2015.
11. The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) has downgraded Guinness Nigeria Plc from its special pricing status category following the depreciation in its share price. Stocks are included in the “high priced stocks” category if their share price is consistently above N100 per share. High priced stocks require about 10,000 shares to trade before the share price changes as against the 50,000 shares for stocks priced below N100. Forte Oil, Lafarge Africa, Guinness Nigeria and Seven-Up Bottling Company have been on the watch-list for removal from the NSE since their share price fell below N100 for well over three months.
12. Nigeria’s leading pension fund, Stanbic IBTC Pension Managers Limited, revealed that it has over 1.5 million Retirement Savings Accounts (RSAs), with assets under management more than N1.88 trillion. That’s about 30% of the N6 trillion valued as total pensions funds AUM.
13. In one of the funniest stories last week, Toyota Nigeria Limited urged vehicle owners and drivers not to patronise fake mechanics and unauthorised auto technicians to save cost due to economic recession. The Chairman, TNL, Mr. Michael Ade-Ojo, himself gave this warning in Lagos at the 2016 Toyota Awards.
14. UBA is apparently not the only bank looking to expand its tentacles across Africa. Group Managing Director of Guaranty Trust Bank (GTBank) Plc, Mr. Segun Agbaje, last week revealed that the bank plans to open a new business in Tanzania. UBA has a Tanzanian subsidiary.
15. Mr Agbaje also revealed the secret of the bank’s success. It declared that the decision of the bank’s management to diversify into retail business over five years ago, has become the building block for its phenomenal growth in recent times.
16. GT Bank also revealed that its 737 payment and service delivery platform helped it record over N1 trillion in transactions. They only introduced the service a year ago.
17. The FMDQ OTC Securities Exchange Plc has approved the listing of Mixta Real Estate Plc N30 billion bond for trading on its platform. It says, the listing of Mixtra bonds will mark the first real estate bond to be listed on the FMDQ this year. Link
18. Multi-choice, owners of DSTV announced 5% increase in subscriptions across board last week. As expected, Nigerians did not take it likely. The House Representatives also reacted negatively to the announcement and moved to enforce the ‘pay as you go’ option on Multichoice Satellite television. The House in plenary mandated the committees on Ethics, Values and National Orientation, Telecommunications to interface with regulators such as the NCC, CPC and Multichoice to address these concerns and report back within 8weeks for further legislative action. DSTV usually announced price increases around April of every year but resisted an increase last year.
19. Wema Bank Chief Finance Officer Tunde Mabawonku revealed plans by the bank to raise N20 billion via a debt issue by end of second quarter or early third quarter. The company’s capital ratios had declined to about 11% from 15% after it repaid a loan of N50 billion obtained from the CBN. He said the debt raise will boost capital ratios to 14 percent. He claims they need about N8 billion to meet 14% and would raise further equity in 2018. Wema Bank reported a modest profit after tax of N2.5 billion compared to N2.2 billion a year earlier.
20. BUA group plans to increase its market share in the Cement Industry by an additional 10 million metric tonnes by 2018. At the company’s yearly customers’ forum and award held in Abuja, its Executive Chairman, Abdulsamad Rabiu, said the firm would double its production capacity through an expansion of its production plants.
21. Last week was a slightly better week for Nigerian stocks. The NSE All-Share Index and Market Capitalization appreciated by 0.90% to close the week at 25,746.52 and N8.909 trillion respectively. Apart from the NSE Banking Index, all other Indices finished higher during the week while the NSE ASeM Index closed flat.
No comments:
Post a Comment